Manuel Bujados

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Illustrations by Manuel Bujados, ca. 1915–1930



La Esfera, May 1930



Painter and illustrator Manuel Bujados (1889–1954) was born in Viveiro in Galicia, Spain. From about 1914 to 1934, he lived the bohemian life in Madrid before heading to Bell Ville, Argentina to take over the family business. The curators of a 2009 Museo Lugo exhibit describe Bujados as well-known and respected in Spain and Latin America (at the time) for his painting and Beardsley-influenced illustrations for publications like La Esfera, Mundo Gráfico, Nuevo Mundo, and Por esos Mundos. They hoped to revive his memory with their exhibit and still host a gallery of sketches and a PDF containing the only info I can find about him.


The majority of the images in this post come from La Esfera, a lavish art publication funded by Prensa Gráfica Española, also behind Nuevo Mundo. It ran from from 1914 to the start of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931. Hemeroteca Digital has scanned 867 issues. I combed through the scans for work by Bujados. It took forever.


José Francés, art critic for La Esfera, was an important influence and guided Bujados to focus on illustration. Bujados worked there alongside Salvador Bartolozzi and Rafael de Penagos.


I would like to thank the Spanish blogger Santos Maroto for covering Bujados in three posts on his blog Final de página.




La Esfera, May 1930






La Esfera, January 1927






La Esfera, May 1928






La Esfera, April 1927






Painting, 1926 (found at a defunct Spanish website)






La Esfera, April 1920






La Esfera, April 1921






La Esfera, April 1930






La Esfera, August 1930






La Esfera, August 1930






La Esfera, October 1930






La Esfera, June 1930






From Cronicas, 1930






La Esfera, June 1929






La Esfera, September 1920






La Esfera, October 1920






La Esfera, October 1915






La Esfera, October 1915






La Esfera, December 1926






La Esfera, April 1930






La Esfera, July 1927






La Esfera, July 1927






La Esfera, November 1923






La Esfera, December 1926






La Esfera, December 1926






La Esfera, December 1920






Viveiro poster, 1929 (commissioned for the Exposición Iberoamericana) via Museo Lugo






drawing, via Museo Lugo



Scans by Hemeroteca Digital.


(I've been working toward this post since . . . January 2012!)


See all posts from Spain on 50 Watts


This post first appeared on March 25, 2015 on 50 Watts